WORCESTER — A school transportation services audit suggests the district could save $1.2 million a year if it eliminated busing for Grades 7-12, but the idea likely won't see the light of day.

"We think that's dramatic and drastic and would limit choices for students," Brian Allen, the district's chief financial and operations officer, said Wednesday during a joint meeting of the School Committee's Finance and Operations subcommittee and the City Council's Standing Committee on Education. "The administration is not going to make a recommendation for the elimination of 7-12 transportation."

"Eliminating transportation (for secondary students) would be an academic disaster," said School Committee member John Monfredo. "Right now, we're looking at chronic absenteeism, mostly in our high schools. Eliminating busing, what would that do?"

While the state does not mandate busing for students beyond Grade 6, the School Committee's policy is to provide busing for all students who live more than two miles from their school.

The City Council requested the report because of what it called ongoing increases in "non-education" spending, of which transportation spending is a big piece.

The district's transportation costs last year were about $15.8 million, and will be about $16.5 million in fiscal 2015.

"What we've seen is some significant increases in transportation costs, primarily special education," Mr. Allen said. Special education students represent 17 percent of students who are eligible for bus transportation, according to the report.

The study, conducted by Maryland-based School Bus Consultants, was mostly complimentary of the School Department's operational efficiency.

"What we've done is identify additional opportunities for what we see as improvements, from a cost perspective and from a management and administrative perspective," said Jeff Viar, project manager for SBC.

As far as eliminating Grades 7-12 busing, he said, "This is a model that we think is achievable, but we are not recommending it. It could not occur quickly. … We don't believe this is in your best interest to do.

"We see you are getting a tremendous amount of use out of the assets that are available to you," Mr. Viar continued. Still, he said, the report found that Worcester's average per-pupil transportation costs — $1,357 — are 27 percent higher than 67 urban districts to which is was compared.

The report also identified a less than optimal use of seating capacity, with only 52 percent of seats on the 180 buses that operate daily being used. That's in line with averages elsewhere, Mr. Viar said, but it still means that one of every two seats is unused. The report suggested lengthening some bus routes to address this. Mr. Viar said the average ride time for regular education students is less than 20 minutes. "That's really terrific service," he said. "Can we make some of those runs incrementally longer?"

Also suggested were tweaking school bell schedules because of the 37 buses that are currently scheduled to arrive at or after the first morning bell; giving parents the option of opting into and/or out of bus service to allow for more effective route planning; and the hiring of a school bus route coordinator.

Several at the meeting spoke in favor of an opt in/out choice.

"If we knew who was opting out, we could look at reuse of buses," said City Counselor Tony Economou, chairman of the Education Committee. "I'm not sure about opt in, because everyone is going to opt in. But I think some will opt out."

"Anything we can do ... to clarify demand so we have a better sense of the number of students we will be required to transport will help us better manage cost," Mr. Viar said.

"I do think that the opt-in or opt-out choice is something worth looking at," said City Counselor Kate Toomey. "If there was a way to be able to communicate that with parents this summer before we go back to school, to get an idea of who would be interested, it might be viable. But I can't see it happening before the end of the next school year if we don't get a hold of people now."

John Hennessey, the school district's director of transportation, said that would be logistically difficult.

School Committee member Tracy O'Connell Novick said, "The concern that I have about opting out is we have a 40 percent mobility rate in the city of Worcester. ... Does the high rate of mobility negate the usefulness of opt in and opt out?"

Mr. Allen said the department's current contracts with Durham School Services (one for regular education buses, one for special education buses) expire next June.

"We would need to put a bid out in December," he said. "All decisions need to be made this fall. We have a really small window in terms of really making some final decisions.

"We'll go back to the School Committee once we complete our internal analysis," he said.